The Perspective talks to National President Dale Clark about CPC's five year plan

Q: The corporation's new corporate plan talks about a lot of profits. What kind of impact will the plan have on workers?

Well, it's a good thing that there's money available, but the corporation has paid out over $200 million to the government in dividends. That's a problem. If the post office doesn't re-invest their profits, it will have an impact on jobs and wages. I hate to sound like a broken record but the Canada Post Act doesn't say anything about paying dividends and income tax. It should not be happening.

I also think it's important to point out that we are all paying the price for this lost revenue. The government has really taken money that the post office needs to fulfill its real mandate to improve service, maintain affordable rates and improve labour relations.

I'm glad that they plan to invest some money in parcel delivery and express services because if the corporation is able to grow, that makes money and jobs available for us, too. There's no guarantee that we'll get it, so it's the union's job to make sure that we do.

Q: Do you think Canada Post's plan will influence negotiations?

If CPC is making profits, workers should expect higher wages and better working conditions. If dividends weren't being paid to the government, more money would be available for those things. In the text of their report, CPC admits they couldn't have done it without us - we expect them to back that up in 2002.

Q: How much money did the corporation make in 2000/2001?

Canada Post made $141 million from operations. It had net profits of $84 million.

'Income from operations' is the amount of money that Canada Post makes from its business activities. 'Net income' is what the corporation makes after it subtracts things like income tax.

The $84 million net profit figure includes postal operations and Purolator. Postal operations had a net surplus of $106 million this year while Purolator lost $22 million.

Q: How much money is Canada Post expecting to make over the next five years?

After taxes, Canada Post expects to make $418 million over the next five years. They plan to give the government $416 million in income tax and $98 million in dividends over the same period of time.

Q: What does the union think of the corporation's plans?

We'd like to see more money put back into improving service and wages. We don't think their plan goes far enough on the question of service, but it's better than it's been in the past.

Q: What kind of plans should the corporation have?

Any public business making money should be putting some or all of its profits back into better service for the public and improved wages for their workers. That's a very reasonable idea - and I think my views are consistent with what the public and postal workers expect.

Bringing Rural and Suburban Mail Couriers into the bargaining unit is long overdue. And with bargaining on the horizon, we expect to see improvement there.

Q: Why is the Corporation paying so much in income tax?

Until very recently, Canada Post had been using up tax credits that it built up when it didn't make a profit. But these credits have been used up, so the corporation is now paying a lot more tax.

Q: Since it's losing money, wouldn't it make sense for Canada Post to just get rid of Purolator?

When Canada Post was losing money, the right wing wanted it sold off. Selling off Purolator would only hurt the workers and benefit the big courier companies.

The courier industry wants Canada Post to get rid of Purolator. They want this part of the post office's business. And that's just for starters. In the long term, they want to make Canada Post less and less relevant as a provider of both postal and courier services. In other words, companies like UPS want to replace the post office. So strategically, it makes sense for Canada Post to keep Purolator, but we'd like to see all that work brought into the post office.

Q: When the annual report came out, media reports said that Canada Post was considering raising stamp prices even though it made money. This turned out to be true. The Corporation recently announced a basic letter rate increase of one cent as of January 14, 2002. What are your views on the rate hike?

Well, no one likes rate hikes, but if they have to remain self-sufficient and prices don't increase with inflation, they have to reduce service. As it is, they are only allowed to raise the basic rate by 2/3 of the rate of inflation. They certainly can't expand service and still be self-sufficient if they're not allowed to increase the basic rate. Canada Post still has one of the lowest basic rates in the industrial world. So I don't think the rate increase is out of line.

Q: October 16th will mark 20 years since Parliament passed the Canada Post Corporation Act. How do you think Canada Post is doing?

The corporation has obviously gone way beyond self-sufficiency. It's great that they've exceeded what they were supposed to do.

Some steps have been taken to improve labour relations, but there's still plenty they could be doing to build on that relationship. They could improve their health and safety record. They could pay Rural and Suburban Mail Couriers what they're worth, and they could stop contracting out to low-wage courier companies.

They are still performing modestly in terms of service, though there've been many improvements. Many communities still don't have door-to-door service and some places only have postal outlets in convenience stores and similar places that don't provide full service. With all these profits, a lot of what they're doing with the money is getting more media attention and the public is watching. So I think they'd better start looking at these things.